Foodland Super Market Ltd. has signed a lease with General Growth Properties calling for it to pay $24.3 million over an initial 20-year term for what will be its largest store in Hawaii — a 47,395-square-foot Foodland Farms store at Ala Moana Center.

The lease, which is scheduled to expire on June 30, 2036, with extensions for four successive periods of five years each, is for Foodland Farms’ new flagship store that will include The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, R. Field Wine Co., a Foodland Pharmacy and an in-store bank.

The old 18,500-square-foot Foodland grocery store on the street level of the mall — one of Ala Moana Center’s original tenants when it first opened in 1959 — closed in 2014 after company executives decided to not renew their lease for the space.

Honolulu general contractor Albert C. Kobayashi Inc. has started construction on the new store, which is located beneath the 185,000-square-foot newly-repositioned Nordstrom department store that recently opened in the mall’s Ewa Wing on Piikoi Street. It is scheduled to open later this year.

The new store will be more than twice as large as its original location, near the Ala Moana Center post office, and be the largest Foodland location in the state.

The store is part of mall majority owner General Growth Properties Inc.’s $573 million expansion project to redevelop a former Sears department store into an expanded three-level retail area with 650,000-square-feet of new retailers, including a 167,000-square-foot Bloomingdale’s department store.

The Collection, which is next to Kamehameha Schools’ Salt at “Our Kakaako” 85,000-square-foot restaurant and retail complex, has ground floor commercial space totaling 12,022 square feet.

Beall Corp. said that with eight planned new high-rises within a half-mile radius and three currently under construction, retailers will have access to a captive audience of local residents and visitors.

Located at 600 Ala Moana Blvd. on the site of the former CompUSA store, The Collection consists of a 43-story condominium with 397 units, a four-story building that houses 54 loft-style units and 14 three-bedroom townhomes.

Construction on Honolulu-based A&B Properties Inc.’s $200 million project began about a year ago, and is scheduled to be completed by late 2016.

Today, Ward Village announced plans to welcome world renowned restauranteur Nobu Matsuhisa to the neighborhood. In late 2016, Nobu will move from Waikiki to a dramatic new space at the base of Waiea, Ward Village’s first flagship residential building.

“At Ward Village, we are curating an unmatched mix of design, retail and food experiences with Nobu serving as a culinary anchor for our community,” said David R. Weinreb, Chief Executive Officer of The Howard Hughes Corporation. “Nobu’s decision to move from Waikiki to Ward Village is significant as it moves us closer to our long term goal of becoming the new center of Honolulu.”

Nobu Honolulu will join an array of new restaurants and stores coming to Ward Village, including Merriman’s and Whole Foods Market, while offering its spin on contemporary Japanese cuisine with locally sourced fish and produce. The chefs will also showcase Nobu’s signature dishes such as Yellowtail Jalapeno, New Style Sashimi and Black Cod Miso.

“Ward Village is creating a new community in the heart of Honolulu that is unlike anything that exists in Hawaii,” said Chef Nobu Matsuhisa. “The combination of world class architecture, a walkable neighborhood and an authentic district of high quality shops, restaurants and entertainment offerings makes Ward Village a unique destination and the place to be in Honolulu.”

Definition Personal Fitness is moving within the Honolulu neighborhood of Kakaako to a new location that’s almost four times the size of the gym’s current space, the owner told PBN Thursday.

The personal training gym, which is owned by Michele Tokuda and will be known by a new name, “Kakaako Fitness,” currently is located in a 2,100-square-foot second floor space at Ward Court near First Hawaiian Bank, where it has been since 2008.

Tokuda, a fitness industry veteran who has more than two decades of experience, told PBN that her new space, inside a contractor’s unused warehouse at 815 Waimanu St., will total about 8,000 square feet on two floors with the downstairs as a personal training gym and the upstairs for group work.

Currently, the gym has five trainers that teach various classes involving metabolic training, an off-shoot of CrossFit, that range in size between 10 and 25.

But in its new digs, it will be able to accommodate about 10 trainers and many more people.

“It would appeal to people who need the one-on-one attention, that personalized training,” said Tokuda, a Hawaii Baptist Academy and Oregon State University alumna, who has had stints fitness director at Hawaiian Telcom, and at 24-Hour Fitness. “We’re not a membership gym.”

Kakaako Fitness all came about after training her future landlord, Russell Yamamoto, co-owner of Honolulu-based RMY Construction, which is leasing out its warehouse space for the new venture.

“I had it as a storage facility initially, and then my friend wanted to lease it to store some products, but that didn’t work out,” Yamamoto told PBN. “So we’ve decided to transform our warehouse into a fitness center.”

Tokuda, who has trained such well-known Hawaii businessmen as Jay Kadowaki, owner of his own contracting firm, Hawaii housing developer Gary Furuta and Eddie Onouye, the husband of Hawaii entertainer Carole Kai, plans to open Kakaako Fitness in December.

“I will be able to reach out to the neighboring areas a little more,” she said.

The owner of Lox of Bagels is opening a new cafe called Cafe Grace on the ground level of the Imperial Plaza condominium, next to a Vietnamese restaurant, in the Honolulu neighborhood of Kakaako next week, the manager told PBN.

Manager Naomi Salomon said that Cafe Grace will serve bagels, coffee and desserts.

The cafe will open to the public at 1 p.m. on Aug. 14, Salomon said. Its regular hours will be from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, Saturdays from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and closed on Sundays.

Lox of Bagels, which moved into a bigger location at the Kokea Center in Honolulu on Dillingham Boulevard a few months ago, plans to close down its original location at Sand Island at the end of this month, Salomon said.

The bagel and coffee shop was founded by Lester and Irene Yonamine, who grew the business from a startup to where it is today.

In 2007, Lox of Bagels was acquired by Kiku International, an American subsidiary of a logistics, supply and human resource company based in Japan, with the intention of solidifying Lox of Bagels’ position as a leading wholesale supplier of fresh bagels.

Hawaii State Federal Credit Union, which recently bought Acme Fender & Paint Shop’s property in Kakaako, plans to build a new flagship branch on that property.

Hawaii State Federal Credit Union, the second-largest credit union in the state, recently purchased the former Acme Fender & Paint Shop property in Kakaako, where it plans to build its new flagship branch not too far away from its current Honolulu location, the head of the company told PBN.

Andrew Rosen, president and CEO of Hawaii State Federal Credit Union, whose main branch is located at 560 Halekauwila St., said that the new facility will house its retail functions.

The new branch will be located on a ground level with two floors of parking above it.

“With the population growing in Kakaako, we will have a lot of new users using our branch,” he told PBN. “A rail transit station will be nearby, so there will be a lot of foot traffic as well. We want to make sure we have a modern branch that addresses our own growth as well as the areas growth.”

The plan is to keep its existing five-story building for administrative functions with the new facility helping to deal with the expansion of the company.

“We have expanded in some new business lines,” Rosen said. “We’re back in the mortgage business and now we’re doing more financial advisory and investment services. In the last year, we’ve hired 20 new employees.”

Hawaii State Federal Credit Union paid $3.85 million for the property, according to public records and the broker who handled the deal, Kevin Nishikawa, vice president and Realtor for Honolulu-based Marcus & Associates Inc.

Rosen said that Acme Fender & Paint Shop, which remains open, will continue to lease the property from Hawaii State Federal Credit Union until construction on the new building begins.

He said that it is still working on the final plans on the new facility, but hopes to start construction sometime next year.

Hawaii State Federal Credit Union trails only HawaiiUSA Federal Credit Union, in terms of most members and highest amount of assets in the state.

Hawaii State Federal Credit Union, which currently has eight branches across the state and more than 50 shared-branch locations in Hawaii and Las Vegas, has 231 employees and about 80,000 members, according to a corporate fact sheet as of March 31. It was established in 1936 and has $1.3 billion in assets.

PBN first reported that Acme Fender & Paint Shop’s owner, Dwayne Nasu, had put his Kakaako property for sale with plans to close the business when it sold.

The asking price for the four 3,000-square-foot parcels at 585 Halekauwila St. was $5 million.

Nasu along with other small landowners in Kakaako were featured in a PBN cover story last year, discussing the quandary they face, either to sell or stay as the area adds thousands of residents and a slew of high-rises in a redevelopment of Oahu’s “Third City.”

He is part of the second generation of the family business, which started when he was just 3 years old.

A vacant building owned by the state and once used for charter boat operations at Kewalo Basin is being eyed for conversion to an Italian restaurant.

A Japanese-based company is seeking to negotiate a lease for the 3,000-square-foot building with the Hawaii Community Development Authority, the state agency that owns the harbor in Kaka­ako.

The company, Bellavita Inc., owns several Italian restaurants in Japan and has sought exclusive rights to negotiate a lease for the building with HCDA.

The agency is scheduled to discuss the proposal at a meeting Wednesday and could make a decision on whether to enter such negotiations at the meeting.

Bellavita, which is led by Masa­hiko Naka­mura, proposes renovating the building for its plan that includes outdoor seating facing the harbor’s front row largely occupied by charter fishing and tour boats.

Nakamura has a passion for Italian food and culture, and operates an Italian language and cultural center in Japan.

HCDAis considering the proposal as a way to liven up the waterfront. The agency also has received a separate proposal by two wedding companies in Japan to establish a wedding venue and a restaurant on a neighboring site at the harbor.

The wedding companies, Goodluck Corp. and Take and Give Needs Co., want to develop an area used for parking and once occupied by McWayne Marine Supply. HCDA’s board voted in August to let agency staff negotiate terms for a potential lease.

HCDAhas said there would be a detailed presentation by the companies, two public hearings, an environmental review and community consultations before a lease could be approved for the wedding and restaurant development plan.

HAWAII AMERICANA REALTY

For the past 14 years, Mark G. Howard has practiced his skills as a licensed Realtor in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Las Vegas, Nevada and now Principal Broker & President of 'Hawaii Americana Realty', in Honolulu, Hawaii. He has gained a competitive edge in the real estate market by earning his status as an Accredited Buyer’s Representative (ABR).